Many users, especially across Steam’s own forums are reporting that the new Warner Bros game Bastion is crashing on launch and displaying the less than helpful “Bastion has stopped working” message.

The solution for many has been a simple install of the Microsoft XNA tools. The consensus has been to install updated DirectX and .NET Frameworks also, but most users have already got these but haven’t heard of XNA. Feel free to cover all your bases, but run the XNA install first and relaunch the game.

Solid Tip: There is no need to worry about running the game as administrator, in compatibility mode, or with any other settings.

The Quick Fix

Go to the game folder: Steam\steamapps\common\bastion\

You will find 3 exe files

Install xnafx31_redist.msi

Try to launch the game

This should fix the crash for most users

If not, run the other 2 files and try to launch again

Additional Help

If you see black screen with an error message when the game crashes, then you do not need the XNA installation. Try to note the message and search Google for specific help in that case. For more info on XNA, see this Wiki article.

If you happen to find yourself still unable to launch the game, then you should follow the normal advice for getting games to launch.

This includes verifying you meet the system requirements, updating your graphics card driver, disable additional monitors, make sure an anti-virus isn’t interfering, etc.

1 Comment

It won’t work. Same message error, it actually happens with every game who needs XNA to run. Any ideas? I don’t have .NET Framework 3.5 because I can’t install it (setup won’t even run), but I have 4.0.